Accumulation of potassium by differentiating metaxylem elements of maize roots

Abstract

The previous demonstration that the large late metaxylem vessels of field‐grown maize (Zea mays L. cv. Rosella) roots do not lose their crosswalls until they are 20–30 cm from the tip, and that the presence of a soil sheath outside the root was indicative of immature vessels within, greatly strengthened the hypothesis that ion accumulation into these roots was by uptake into living xylem element vacuoles. Proposals that salt movement into the xylem was by leakage or secretion into dead vessels became much less plausible. Potassium concentration in the vacuoles of late metaxylem elements was measured by X‐ray microanalysis in unetched fracture faces of bulk, frozen‐hydrated pieces of sheathed roots, and found to be in the range 150–400 mM. Potassium concentration in open vessels of bare roots, measured both with the microprobe and by spectrophotometry of aspirated sap, was in the range of 5 to 25 mM. It is concluded that uptake of potassium (and possibly other ions) is into living xylem elements, and that its release to the transpiration stream occurs by the breakdown of their crosswalls and the addition of their vacuoles to the solution in the vessels above.